Singer-songwriter Jill Barber to wrap up series of festive shows in Halifax

Musician Jill Barber is wrapping up her Christmas tour in Halifax.

Canadian singer-songwriter Jill Barber is wrapping up her Christmas tour Wednesday night at the Light House Arts Centre in Halifax.

It will close out a 10-date Maritime run built around her first ever holiday album, “A Holly Jolly Jill Barber Christmas.”

“(It’s) very warm, cozy, nostalgic, lush with strings and horns and full of seasonal classics that are very familiar, a few less familiar that should have been classics, and a couple of original holiday songs that I wrote as well,” Barber explains.

The Juno award-winning singer says she was always waiting for the right time to release a holiday album.

Barber complied a list of songs she wanted to include over the years before finally feeling ready to dive into the world of Christmas music.

“I love Christmas music and I really wanted to get it right,” she said. “This year I felt like everything had come together, I had the right team, the right band.”

Barber said her Christmas tour has been “incredible” and “heartwarming.”

“The audiences have been amazing, and it’s been so much fun to get my Christmas spirit on,” she said.

A cover of “Rudolph, the Red-Nosed Reindeer” is the third track on the album and features Barber’s older brother.

“It was very special for me on this album to do a duet with my big brother, Matthew Barber, who is also a professional musician and singer-songwriter,” she said.

“I think at Christmastime, we want to hear the songs we know and love, but it’s nice to get a new version of them, because there are so many out there.”

Barber and her band have been performing in the Maritimes for the last two weeks.

“We’ve been all over New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, P.E.I. (Wednesday) here in Halifax is the finale of the Holly Jolly Barber Christmas tour and we’re going big,” she said.

“We have a local string quartet that’s coming to perform with us, a full band, lots of costume changes, lots of theatrics. It’s going to be very entertaining.”

While the tour is wrapping up, Barber hopes her record will continue be a part of people’s Christmases in the years to come.

“And that it can be tucked away for the rest of the year and brought out again year after year,” she said.

“My absolute hope of hopes is that my album can be a part of making memories with your family each year at Christmastime.”

With files from CTV Atlantic’s Katie Kelly and Carl Pomeroy.

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